Subtitling 101

Subtitles: Just what are they? Are there different types? What formats do they come in? If you don’t know much about subtitles, no worries. That’s what we’re here for. After all, we’re experts in subtitling services here at Metro Captions!

The first thing to know is that there’s 2 types of subtitling: open caption and closed caption. The process of open caption subtitling requires the subtitles to be burned right on to the video itself. This makes shutting the captioning off impossible. Open caption subtitling is really a great feature when you want to show a video to people who don’t speak English. Simply play the video, and forget any confusion that comes with turning on or off the subtitles.

On the other hand, closed caption subtitling does allow users to turn the captioning on or off. Closed caption subtitling is commonly used with DVD authoring and web multimedia platforms. Think Hulu and YouTube. This feature is very handy when you have many subtitle tracks for one video.

As far as formats, Metro Captions can provide open and closed caption subtitling in a large variety of formats. For open caption projects, we can burn the subtitles on digital media such as .mp4, .mov, .wmv, and then output to physical formats such as DVD, Beta SP, HD, Blu Ray, or any other format your project requires. We also offer services in high definition. And check out the variety of closed caption formats we offer as well.

If you have a subtitling project and feel lost from the start, contact us. We have a team of amazing experts who will do everything for you – from transcribing your tapes to translating, inputting text and producing. We even offer our customers fully authored DVDs and give them the choice of including multiple subtitle tracks. When Metro Captions works on your subtitling project, the final product will be perfect. Every time.